Shady Valley Ford

As I was driving back home from mom's I detoured through Damascus and Shady Valley and spied this old blue ford truck sticking out from under a old red barn near the intersection with 421.

It was the contrast in the red and blue and green colors that caught my eye from the road. So I skidded to a stop, parked in a driveway, and quickly shot a couple of brackets.

Here's the result after some HDR'n and some cropping.

Rural Retreat Train Depot

My plans for a photo trip on Good Friday didn't go as planned. I tried in vain to outrun the rain as I motored up I-81 to Rural Retreat Va., looking for this train depot that need it's picture taken.

I had read a newspaper article about this depot a couple of weeks earlier. The article says that, like the train depot in Chuckey TN, the train depot in Rural Retreat is privately owned but currently sits on land owned by the Norfolk & Southern railroad. The owner wants to upgrade the building but is reticent to do so in its current location, and the railroad won't sell him the land on which it sits. So he plans to move the train station to property he already owns at Mount Airy, a long-lost stagecoach stop along U.S. Highway 11 in Wythe county.

I was about a week late getting there as most of the platform and the roof over it have already been removed. I assume the article in the paper must be drawing lots of attention because of the number of 'No Trespassing' signs tacked on the building - and yes, I was careful to stay on railroad property and the sidewalk, not on his property.

Regardless, when I arrived it was breezy, about 41 degrees, and sprinkling rain, a really bad combination for picture-taking. But I was determined to get some brackets so I grabbed a towel to cover my camera and set off. Between gusts of wind I snapped off several brackets, I could only take pictures from the upwind side because the rain was blowing too much to allow shooting into the wind without getting water spots on the lens.

Anyway, here's the HDR'd result, with some judicious photoshop'n to remove the 'No Trespassing' signs and power lines.

Barn Along I-26

Another HDR shot of a barn with clouds. This barn is along I-26 just north of the Gray exit.

I stopped along the interstate - while observing all safety rules of course - and snapped the three photos of the bracket between cars on the road.

Pretty sweet clouds, eh? I'm always amazed at how cool the clouds look after being HDR'd.

Pine Tree at Host

Here's another picture of the pine tree that sits on the ridge above the pond at Host. I ran the single exposure through the HDR processing software and it did some really cool work on the clouds.

Bridge to a Really Nice Place

Here's a strongly-HDR'd pic of a stone-covered bridge near our house. I've been scoping this scene out for a while now, but never stopped because there was no place to park my truck that was out of the road --- so I got my girls to drop me off then come back later to pick me up.

Once again it was not a cool a shot as I expected, but now I know, right? What I think the scene needs is a nice orangy, glowy, cloudy, morning sky for a background, and maybe a better angle shooting from the other side of the creek.

The Long Way Home

The weather was so nice on the way home from mom's on Sunday I decided to come back to J'boro through Damascus to Backbone Rock to Elizabethton. It's a great ride through country with some great old barns and other stuff that should make some great pictures.

What I hadn't anticipated was how many motorcycles would be out riding that route. Oh my gosh, literally hundreds of bikes, loud bikes, fast bikes, slow bikes, old folks on bikes, geez. The numbers of bikes on the road really mucked up my picture taking trip cause every wide spot along the 50+ miles of road that I wanted to stop at was occupied, oh bother.

I was able to get stopped at and snag the above faux-HDR picture of this neat old barn with baskets and whatnot nailed to the outside. I wish there was a better angle to get a better shot, but, the no trespassing signs and herd of bikes precluded working around to a better angle. All that stuff on the outside of the barn made some really great texture.

The next faux-HDR picture is a church that looks like only the roof was built, no walls, just dormers on a roof .... weird. The rock front of the church also has some excellent texture and color.

Sulphur Springs UMC Camp Meeting Grounds

Here's another building that I drive by several times a week and say to myself "you ought take some pictures of that church cause it's got some cool lines".

It's the Sulphur Springs United Methodist Church on the Camp Meeting grounds which have been here since 1820. The plaque out front reads: "The Methodist church has conducted meetings here since 1820. Camp meetings are religious festivals at which participants eat and sleep on site. The first shed at Sulphur springs Camp Meeting Grounds was erected in 1842. A new shed, 74 feet by 42 feet, was built in 1900, using hand-hewn logs from the original structure.

Here's a heavy-handed faux-HDR of a section of the interior of the shed next door to the church. The lighting was really bad when this was taken. It would be a great HDR subject for a late evening shot, with just the ceiling fan lights on.

Old Log-ish House Near Host

I drive by this old house near Host at least once a week and most every time I say to myself "self, you should walk out through the field and take some pictures of the house." So, at lunch today me and John walked out there with cameras in hand.

The owners were mending the fence along the road and were nice enough to let us walk around the house and shoot as many as we wanted.

Clear blue skies are typically bad days for shooting, so here's the best of the bunch. The blue sky, the green grass, the yellow of the new leaves, the grays and browns ... it was a lot of good color.

Kiner Creek Falls

It was an uber-bad day for waterfall picture taking but a really nice day to go walkabout. I went to Laurel Run Park in Church Hill, mostly looking for wildflowers in bloom, but I was probably about a week early for that too. Regardless it was a nice trek to a new place.

Once you cross the bridge the trail starts on an old logging road. The old road was pretty muddy in places as it followed the creek up the mountain. The creek must be crossed eventually without a bridge. In times of higher water like today you may need to wade across the creek, so I'd recommend wearing old shoes. I was able to rock hop across today .... barely. After crossing the creek it's just a little ways further to Laurel Run Falls. It was overrun with folks today, some wading just above the main falls, most sitting on the rocks in front of lower section, so there was zero opportunity to get a picture without folk in it, so I figured I'd go on to Kiner Creek falls and get pictures of Laurel Run on the way out.

I continued on the main trail a little further to a point where the creeks fork. Straight ahead (the smaller stream) is Kiner Creek. I took the trail to the left that climbed uphill or a short distance and then a switchback to the right, then continued on the trail another 1/4 mile. If you listen closely you can hear the falls on your right - it sounds different from the cascades in the creek to this point. There are two trail/slides down the hill, the first goes to the base of the falls - it's the steepest and hardest to navigate. The second comes out right at the top of the falls - be careful.

I did the second trail first but there were no picture taking vantage points, so, I climbed/slid/fell down the first trail to the base. It['s pretty neat down there, you can walk behind the falls - which I did - to get to a trail on the far side. The picture above is a three-exposure bracket. It was so bright and sunny I had to use an 3-stop ND filter plus a polarizer just to get a bit of blurry water.

Rumor has it you can take the trail on this side of the creek back out, which I tried. Either I lost the trail, or it's in such poor shape that it's not easily recognizable, regardless I went back the way came in. The same folk were still all over Laurel Run Falls so I just skipped the pics and hiked on out.

Directions from Jonesborough:
Take I-26 toward Kingsport TN to Exit 1 (Stone Drive - 11W)
Head west on 11W 8.5 miles until you reach Church Hill
Turn left on Goshen Valley Road and follow the signs to Laurel Run Park
Travel 0.8 miles and turn left on River Road
Travel 2 miles and turn left on Laurel Run Park Road
Travel 1.3 miles to the park.
Once at the park, bear right and park at the amphitheater.

Clouds at the Cabin

It's wildflower picture taking season, but it was too windy and cold to venture out ... so I spent the afternoon working through some old pictures from this past winter.

This picture is a faux-HDR from a trip to the cabin. It's fauxness comes from making copies of a single exposure then lowering the exposure of one and raising the exposure of the other. All three images are then processed like a traditional bracket. It came out okay.